Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) gained 11.6% during the quarter after the stock started trading this year following the merger of the Illinois based drug retailing chain, Walgreen Company and the Swiss high street chemist and pharmaceutical giant, Alliance Boots. The new company’s CEO had hinted last month that his camp is looking for another acquisition in U.S. Speculations so far have been pointing towards the drugstore chain Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD). Barry Rosenstein’s Jana Partners is another significant shareholder of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) as it held 18.93 million shares valued at $1.44 billion at the end of 2014.
Halvorsen initiated a position in NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) during the fourth quarter with about 5.41 million shares valued at $413.45 million. The $25.27 billion technology company bore him pretty sweet results over the first quarter as it rose by about 31.36%. The stock outperformed the semiconductor industry by a huge margin as it was only up by 1.64% in comparison. Self made billionaire James Dinan‘s York Capital Management and David Tepper‘s Appaloosa Management Lp are two other prominent stockholders of NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI).
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)‘s holding was slashed by 67% during the fourth quarter to 3.7 million shares valued at $385.48 million in Viking’s portfolio. The e-commerce giant nosedived by 19.92% in Q1 as it missed the estimated revenue mark in its latest financial results. Halvorsen was smart enough not to get too attached to the stock from which many had too high expectations, and was quick to cash in his profits. Dan Loeb’s Third Point wasn’t so lucky as it held about 10 million shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) valued at $1.04 billion.
Viking Global is a fund that we have been following for the last couple of years along with over 700 other investors. We follow hedge funds because our research has shown that their stock picks historically managed to generate alpha even though the filings are 45 days delayed. We used a 60-day delay in our back tests to be on the safe side. Our research have shown that the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds outperformed the S&P 500 Total Return Index by an average of 95 basis points per month between 1999 and 2012. After adjusting for risk, our calculations revealed that these stocks’ monthly alpha was 80 basis points. We have also been sharing and tracking the performance of these stocks since the end of August 2012. These stocks returned 132% over the last 2.5 years, outperforming the S&P 500 ETF by nearly 80 percentage points (see more details here).
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